The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Indo-Japan FTA
A shot in the arm for economic ties

It is heartening that after prolonged negotiations, India and Japan have signed a Free Trade Agreement that sets the pace for a quantum jump in bilateral trade and investment. Considering that India currently accounts for a bare 1 per cent of Japan’s total trade in value terms, this opens up huge possibilities for harnessing the massive potential for bilateral trade. Under the FTA, the two countries will scrap tariffs on goods that account for 94 per cent of the two-way trade flows progressively over the next 10 years. For Japan, the principal gain is that its auto makers such as Suzuki will have tariffs eliminated on car parts shipped to their factories in India. As for India, the FTA will ease access for generic drug makers to a lucrative market in Japan. Tokyo also plans to scrap duties on some foodstuffs — including curry ingredients, pepper and tea but will maintain high tariffs to protect its politically sensitive rice sector. Apart from auto parts, India will cut trade barriers on Japanese steel, electronics and machinery products.

The free trade accord is particularly significant because it will help Japan to reduce its heavy dependence on the Chinese market. In the new geo-political game of one-upmanship between India and China, this is a shot in the arm for India in strategic terms. Diplomatic ties between Japan and China have suffered lately after Japan arrested a Chinese fishing boat captain whose trawler collided with Japan’s Coast Guard ships near the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China. The added reason for heightened Japanese interest is that Japan’s 2010 white paper on trade estimated that middle-income households in India will increase to 620 million people in 2020 from an estimated 190 million in 2010. The Japanese realize that with China’s labour costs rising, India is attractive not only as a market but also as a production centre.

India must now use its enhanced clout to get Japan to agree to accept Indian nurses and caregivers at a time when almost one in four persons in Japan is aged over 65 and the aged-care sector is suffering labour shortages. Another key deal sought by New Delhi, on civilian nuclear cooperation, must also be vigorously pursued.

Jail for a Lt-General
Armed forces must stem corruption

In a rare case of its kind, a recently retired Lt-General has been cashiered from service and awarded three years rigorous imprisonment for committing irregularities while procuring dry rations. Lt-General SK Sahni, who was convicted in a general court martial, was, as Director General Supplies and Transport prior to retirement, primarily entrusted with supplying rations to Army troops, a majority of whom are posted in varied and daunting geographical terrains that includes glaciers, mountains, jungles and deserts.

It is not as if senior ranking officers have not faced court martial in India’s post-Independence history. Maj-General rank officers have been cashiered for professional misconduct during war and, on one occasion, a Navy Chief was dismissed for defying the government in a civil-military supremacy tussle. But this is the first time that a Lt-General has been awarded a prison term. While it goes to the credit of the armed forces that they have taken action against a senior officer, the incident nevertheless reflects a serious issue concerning the internal health of the armed forces. A number of Lt-General and Maj-General rank officers are facing court martial or been named in serious acts of impropriety that range from sexual misconduct, fudging encounters with terrorists and Pakistani soldiers alike, financial corruption and land scams. Sahni is the second Lt-General to be convicted in a court martial in less than a month. Only last month Lt-General PK Rath, a former Corps commander, was awarded a severe reprimand and 15 years loss in seniority after being convicted in a land scam. Another Lt-General, who held the critical post of Military Secretary, is facing a court martial.

For any country, a professional military force serves as the last and ultimate bastion. It is therefore paramount for a state to have an armed force comprising officers and men of character, integrity and honour. The increase in the number of incidents of professional, moral and financial corruption, especially in the higher ranks of the armed forces, notably the Army, is an issue of serious concern which India, with all its security concerns and foreign policy ambitions, can ill afford. This trend needs to be quickly stemmed lest it leads to a downslide.

Thought for the Day

Man’s life would be wretched and confined if it were to miss the candid intimacy developed by mutual trust and esteem. — Edwin Dummer

ARTICLE

Promises of a ‘Suhana safar’!
Mamata Banerjee and the Rail Budget
by R.C. Acharya

In her brief 18 months’ stint almost a decade ago, Ms Mamata Banerjee had just come to learn the ropes of the 1.4-million-strong behemoth called the Indian Railways. Even then she had not hesitated in taking some bold decisions such as opening up the railways’ freight business to the private sector.

In a historic move, she persuaded the highly reluctant Railway Board mandarins to licence almost a dozen private players to run their container trains on the Indian Railways’ tracks, in direct competition with CONCOR (Container Corporation of India ), a railway subsidiary charged with handling the growing container traffic.

Set up more than a couple of decades ago, CONCOR has since grown by leaps and bounds with a string of more than 65 terminals in most of the major industrial towns, and is presently handling more than 2 million TEU’s (twenty foot equivalent units) a year.

Running Rajdhani Container specials within 45 hours between Delhi and JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust) near Mumbai had been one of its USPs which enabled it to capture more than half of export container cargo from North India to western ports.

Of course, in her present “avatar” the first budget presented last year did not create any waves and in the run-up to the elections in West Bengal, whose chief ministership has been her primary target for quite some time now, she is not going to upset the applecart by making any controversial moves either.

Introducing new trains, announcing surveys for new alignments, doubling, electrification, gauge conversion and other such tasks do not cost much and are always a safe bet for any Railway Minister, earning excellent publicity and providing a ready opportunity for “making friends and influencing people” across the vast 64,000-km rail network.

Her Railway Budget of last year contained no less than 52 new trains, considered below par for the course! She also introduced her own brand of inter-city express trains called the Duronto, a non-stop express train for long distance routes.

This year she has already announced 40 new trains and would perhaps add half a dozen Durontos to a long list of almost 9000 passenger trains currently running on the Indian Railways’ highly congested tracks.

The growing importance of tier 2 and tier 3 cities has spurred a huge demand for the fast suburban services offered by MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) on the existing electrified sections and DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Units) on other sections. The last budget had proposed 28 new trains and this year too a dozen new MEMU/DEMU trains would, perhaps, be on the cards.

Of course, her top priority would continue to be the projects in the pipeline for West Bengal, including her favourite one for developing the Hooghly river front in collaboration with the KPT (Kolkata Port Trust) and a number of other civic and private agencies.

In spite of the financial crunch, funds are not going to be denied for the on-going project of loco component works at Dankuni, West Bengal, and the 1131-km-long eastern leg of the Dedicated Freight Corridor which, starting in Ludhiana, is to end up not at Sonnagar, as earlier planned, but at Dankuni. This is being done as desired by Ms Banerjee, entailing an extra expenditure of about Rs 8500 crore!

One more of her pet projects, the DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) factory at Sankrail in West Bengal, is yet to take off for want of a suitable joint venture partner. The usual PPP (Public Private Partnership) route, highly popular with the babus of the Planning Commission, is also being actively pursued.

Of course, any major hike in passenger fares is out of the question, though Ms Banerjee would not be averse to soaking the rich by marginally hiking fares for the airconditioned class!

Freight tariff, however, is a different kettle of fish and would certainly witness some major surprises, in particular, the iron ore traffic, which has registered extremely handsome profits for some of the major players in this business, and Ms Banerjee would like them to contribute a part of their windfall profits to the railways’ long-term growth.

Ms Banerjee is also likely to announce the commissioning of a new coach manufacturing unit at Rae Bareli sometime in June. This has been in the pipeline since the days of Mr Lalu Yadav and has seen a steady progress over the last couple of years.

Set up to spur industrial growth in this part (Rae Bareli and the surrounding areas) of Uttar Pradesh, it will initially start assembling the LHB (Linke Haufmann Busch) coaches from sub-assemblies sent by the RCF (Rail Coach Factory), Kapurthala, in Punjab, and the ICF (Integral Coach Factory), Perambur, near Chennai.

Predictably, the Railway Budget, due by the end of the current month, promises to be more of the same, with scores of promises, commitments and plans, most of which will soon fall by the wayside and get consigned to history.

Ms Banerjee had assured the railway family in the last budget that privatisation is ruled out, and that “Abhi to shuruat hai; lamba suhana safar baaqi hai”. Whether she will be there to keep company for long is, of course, highly debatable!n

The writer is a former Member (Mechanical), Railway Board.

MIDDLE

Rarest of the rare
by GG Dwivedi

Amidst thickly forested hills overlooking the majestic Botanical Gardens in Ooty, nestles Hebron International School. The serene drive through the deep woods which leads to this institution reflects upon its character and soul. On my return from diplomatic assignment, it was late 1999, when I chanced to discover Hebron, while I was in search of a school for my daughter where she could continue with the IGCSE curriculum.

Hebron then was celebrating its first centenary. Its Headmaster, Mr Barcley, was the second-generation head. He was born and brought up in Ooty when senior Barcley was the Headmaster. There were others, the likes of Mr Green who had opted to teach in Hebron after quitting plush assignments in their native countries. Fired with missionary zeal, these legends had benchmarked Hebron into a unique “Centre of Excellence” where the values was the norm and “self learning” a way of life. Hebron primarily catered to the wards of missionaries and expatriate community.

It was late evening when I had gone to drop my daughter at her hostel dorm. As we were looking around for some help to lug her belongings to the first floor, suddenly a bright, cheerful teenager breezed past, but stopped in track; “Hai Aeshita! Let me help you”. Before we could say “Jack Robinson” she had already picked up two packages and was hotfooting upstairs. Later, she introduced herself as Esther. Perceiving my concern and anxiety, Esther assured me that Aeshita is a part of the big Hebron family now and will be well taken care of.

Subsequently, I learnt that Esther was from Australia and her parents were missionaries in India. My daughter always spoke very high of Esther, particularly about her humane and helpful nature. Besides being classmates, both shared a common passion to be doctors. On one occasion, when I was at Hebron to attend its annual day function, I found Esther rather upbeat. She had thrown a treat for her classmates to celebrate the renewal of her visa since she considered India to be her second home. Esther was very keen to complete “A” levels in India before returning home to pursue medicine.

Recently when I read that Dara has been spared death sentence for the triple murder of Dr Graham Stuart Staines along with his two sons, Philip and Timothy aged 10 and 6, on the night of 22 January 1999, my thoughts flashed back to Esther. She was the eldest of three Staines siblings. Despite the grave tragedy of having lost her father and two brothers, Esther had chosen to stay on in India to continue with her schooling. The forbearance and courage displayed by the little adolescent was indeed remarkable. In fact, both Esther and her mother, Mrs Gladys Staines, had forgiven Dara for his sins. Esther always harboured a dream to be a social worker and serve the destitutes. She is now studying medicine in Australia.

The legal system has let go Dara with life imprisonment instead of death penalty, as the heinous crime apparently is not the rarest one. However, the act of fortitude and forgiveness on the part of Esther and Mrs Staines, unquestionably qualifies to be in the category “Rarest of the Rare”.

OPED WORLD

Al Jazeera, the Qatari news channel, independently covers events that the Middle-East’s state-run broadcasters often ignore. In the wake of protests and uprisings in the region, it had gained credibility and is seen as a powerful agent of change.
Middle-East’s news revolution
Regan E. Doherty

A journalist throws open the wide front door of Al Jazeera’s Doha headquarters, cell phone pressed against his ear. “They were arrested last night,” he bellows into his phone. “We can’t get through to the producers. All the material was confiscated, and some of the equipment was destroyed.”

Inside the newsroom, the atmosphere is alive with energy. Journalists sit transfixed to their monitors, which show live feeds from central Cairo — where hundreds of thousands of protesters are on the brink of pushing another strongman from power and where Al Jazeera crews have faced repeated police harassment and detentions. Tapes are piled high in a corner, labelled in scrawling Arabic.

Announcer Abdul Samad Nasser is seen in the studio of the Arabic Al Jazeera satellite news channel in Doha.

“This is our story,” says one Al Jazeera English journalist, who asks not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media. “This is the story that proves to the naysayers of the world what we can do. We took the lead and everyone followed. In spite of harassment, having our tapes stolen, people being beaten up. If you want to know about Egypt, you’re watching Al Jazeera.”

Over the past few weeks, much has been made of the power of Al Jazeera, the Qatari news channel launched 15 years ago by the Gulf Arab state’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani with the goal of providing the sort of independent news that the region’s state-run broadcasters had long ignored.

It was Al Jazeera that first grasped the enormity of the Tunisia uprising and its implications for the region, and Al Jazeera which latched onto — critics would say fuelled — subsequent rumblings in Egypt. And audiences around the world responded: the network’s global audience has rocketed. During the first two days of the Egyptian protests, live stream viewers watching the channel over the internet increased by 2,500 per cent to 4 million, 1.6 million of them in the United States, according to Al Anstey, managing director of Al Jazeera’s English-language channel.

“This is a real turning point for us, in terms of recognition of the integrity of the product we’re producing, and showing that there is a true demand for our content and information,” Anstey said.

Al Jazeera, Arabic for “the island”, has earned the resentment of leaders in the Arab world — as well as the admiration of many ordinary Arabs — almost from the day it launched in 1996.

The first Arab network to put Israeli officials on the air, the channel has also hosted guests as varied as Saudi dissidents, feminist activists and Islamist clerics. “When Israelis first appeared on our screens, people thought we were funded by the Mossad,” one employee said.

In his final weeks in office, Mubarak made little secret of his anger with Al Jazeera’s broadcasts of the protests against his government. The network broadcast live from Cairo’s Tahrir Square throughout the 18 days of protest, despite its office being closed, journalists beaten and detained, and tapes and equipment confiscated and destroyed.

In phone calls with western leaders during the uprising, Mubarak complained about Al Jazeera’s — and Qatar’s — role in fomenting unrest, according to senior political sources in Europe. Mubarak told them he believed the emir was focusing attention on the unrest in Egypt at the behest of Iran. It’s a complaint that has been made before over the years. Executives of the station dismiss the charge and say they are solely interested in good journalism.

Critics point to instances where Al Jazeera has pulled its punches as evidence of the political role it can play. Initially, the channel’s coverage of Saudi Arabia — the Arab world’s leading political and economic power — was extensive, but in 2002 the kingdom withdrew its ambassador to Doha partly in protest over Al Jazeera shows on Saudi politics. Relations between the two states were restored six years later, and observers say Al Jazeera toned down its Saudi coverage.

A July 2009 diplomatic cable from the U.S. embassy in Qatar published by WikiLeaks puts it this way: “Al Jazeera, the most watched satellite television station in the Middle East, is heavily subsidized by the Qatari government and has proved itself a useful tool for the station’s political masters. The station’s coverage of events in the Middle East is relatively free and open, though it refrains from criticizing Qatar and its government. Al Jazeera’s ability to influence public opinion throughout the region is a substantial source of leverage for Qatar, one which it is unlikely to relinquish. Moreover, the network can also be used as a chip to improve relations.”

Some experts suggest that Al Jazeera, like media organizations in many parts of the world, has probably already learned to exercise a degree of restraint rooted in self-preservation. “I think Al Jazeera itself conducts self-censorship to ensure no red lines are crossed,” said David Roberts, researcher at Durham University in Britain. “But in general, the Qatari government is not cherry-picking stories or censoring. They let them run with any story they want, up to a certain point.”

While Arab viewers dismiss the far-fetched notion that the channel is in bed with al Qaeda, many say Al Jazeera can appear sympathetic to extremist groups such as Hamas, which defeated the more secular Fatah in Palestinian elections in 2006. Tensions within the Arabic-language channel were highlighted last year when several female anchors resigned over its conservative dress code.

For a region whose authoritarian governments are usually able to squash stories they don’t want published, Al Jazeera represents a sharp cultural shift, and, many believe, a positive one. Launched with a startup budget of $137 million and a target of generating revenue within five years, the network was able to draw talent from the just-folded BBC Arabic.

“They started with the right kind of culture,” says Mohamed Zayani, professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and author of a book on Al Jazeera. “In terms of the way things were run, the structure was looser, less bureaucratic and red-tape laden. That was good, because it meant they could get things done. It’s something very important in the business of news, where time is of the essence.”

Its main backer has said in the past that he would like the channel to become self-funding. So far, though, advertising revenues have been decidedly hard to come by.

Whether or not Egypt proves a money-spinner for Al Jazeera, it has certainly earned the network a bigger share of Arab leaders’ attention. “Perhaps, after garnering such plaudits for their role in Tunisia and Egypt — and particularly after they found so many ways around attempts to censor them — they will be accorded more fearful respect by other states,” Durham University’s Roberts said. “Now states might realize that they cannot simply turn off Al Jazeera. — Reuters

Wave of protests

We all know about Egypt and Tunisia, where protests ultimately led to the rulers giving up power. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11 following 18 days of massive protests. In Tunisia, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on January 14. Here are details of other major protests against authoritarian governments, rising consumer prices, poverty and high unemployment around the Middle East and North Africa:

BAHRAIN: Soldiers replaced riot police at Pearl Square, a road junction in the Bahraini capital Manama, which demonstrators had tried to turn into a protest base and which was stormed by policeon February 17. Three people were killed in the crackdown and more than 230 injured.

* Over a thousand mourners had gathered in Bahrain on February 16 to bury Fadel Matrouk, killed when police clashed with mourners at the funeral of another protester shot dead during an anti-government “Day of Rage” on February 14.

* King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, trying to defuse the tension, has said he will give 1,000 dinars ($2,650) to each family.

LIBYA: Hundreds of supporters of leader Muammar Gaddafi rallied on February 17, but witnesses reported unrest in several locations. There were clashes on that day in Al Bayda, near Libya’s second city Benghazi, between government supporters and relatives of two men killed during an earlier protest.

* The riot, in the early hours of February 16 in Benghazi, was triggered by the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel, who had worked to free political prisoners, Quryna newspaper said.

* Activists had designated February 17 as a day of protests as it is the anniversary of clashes in 2006 in Benghazi when security forces killed protesters attacking the city’s Italian consulate.

YEMEN: Fierce fighting between protesters and government loyalists left at least 40 wounded on February 17, the seventh day of demonstrations demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year rule.

* Protests spread on February 16, with hundreds of people taking to the streets of Sanaa, the capital, Aden and Taiz.

* The opposition has agreed to enter talks with Saleh, who is keen to avert an Egyptian-style revolt. He said he would step down in 2013 and pledged his son will not take over.

ALGERIA: Thousands of police in riot gear blocked off the centre of Algeria’s capital on February 12 and stopped government opponents from staging a protest march that sought to emulate Egypt’s revolt. They have said they will demonstrate every Saturday until democratic change is introduced.

* President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, seeking to prevent opposition calls for protests from building momentum, has promised more democratic freedoms and ordered new job-creation measures. Algeria said on February 16 that it would lift a state of emergency, in force for 19 years, by the end of the month.

IRAQ: On February 16, around 2,000 people took to the streets in Kut, 150 km southeast of Baghdad, throwing stones at Iraqi security forces. Some voiced anger at Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, echoing anti-government rallies in other parts of the Arab world.

* Three people were killed and dozens wounded when the protesters, demanding better services, clashed with police and set fire to government buildings.

IRAN: Supporters and opponents of the government clashed on February 16 at a funeral for a student shot dead during February 14’s banned opposition rally.

* State TV showed thousands of government supporters at Tehran University for the funeral of Sanee Zhaleh, one of two people shot dead on February 14. Each side blames the other for the killing and claims the victim as one of their own supporters.

* An opposition website said at least 1,500 were arrested while taking part in the banned protests.

* A large majority of Iranian lawmakers signed a motion for two opposition leaders to be tried, calling them “corrupts on earth”. The term “corrupt on earth” is a charge which has been levelled at political dissidents. It is a capital offence.

JORDAN: King Abdullah swore in a new government on February 9, led by a former general who promised to widen public freedoms in response to anti-government protests.

Source: Reuters